Psych Papers

In the 1930’s, a baby chimpanzee was raised as a sibling to a 10-month old infant. Winthrop Kellogg treated the the ape, Gua, as similarly as possible to his own son, Donald. They were dressed, bathed, fed, and taught in the same manner; they both wore diapers and shoes, had similar play toys, and both received a kiss goodnight.

Kellogg examined the effects of nature versus nurture on development. We discuss the tests and measures used to compare the cognitive and physical growth of the chimpanzee and the child. Tests ranged from harmless to unethical and dangerous.

While Gua the chimp developed quickly, Donald the baby actually started copying Gua’s behaviors, dragging his knuckles on the ground, barking when food was nearby, and even developing a type of language with Gua involving bark-like noises.

We also discuss Kellogg’s later research on dolphins and echolocation, highlighting the importance it had in the development of the Navy’s radar systems.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

We analyzed Rotten Tomatoes Movie Ratings and discuss our findings. The scraped dataset has data on 1.1 million reviews from 17.7k movies from 1914–2020.

Here’s a sample of our findings:

• Documentaries were the highest rated movie genres, followed by “Art House & International, Drama”. Horror genres were ranked lowest.
• “Action & Adventure, Drama” and “Comedy” movies were the only genres that audiences liked more than critics.
• G-rated movies had the highest median ratings. As maturity ratings increased (PG, PG-13, R) movie ratings generally decreased.
• Older movies (1920-1960) were rated higher than more recent movies (1990-2010).

Here are some of our takeaways and suspicions:

• People have different expectations for different movie genres and these influence ratings: Documentaries and art house films might be evaluated based on their informative and artistic qualities, respectively, while genres like horror may be judged more on entertainment value and elicited emotional reactions (I also suspect documentaries attract viewers who are already interested in the subject matter).
• Action (eg, 300, Fast & Furious) and comedy (eg, Scary Movie, American Pie) movies are generally considered “lower-brow” and prioritize excitement, humor, and escapism. This immediate gratification may be more appealing to audiences compared to critics.
• Audiences and critics evaluate movies differently. Audiences evaluate movies based on entertainment value, while critics judge more on artistic merit.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

The Shopping Cart Study investigates how toddlers develop awareness of their own bodies. Developed by Chris Moore and colleagues in 2007, the task examine when a sense of self develops in babies. At what age do children begin to understand how their bodies interact with the world?

The shopping cart task involves tying a small rug onto the back of a toy shopping cart, right by the back wheels. If you tried to push the cart, you’d be standing on the rug which would make it impossible to push the cart. In order to push the cart, you have to realize that your body standing on the rug is what’s impeding your ability to push the cart forward. In other words, you have to have enough of a sense of self to understand how your body interacts with the world.

14-15 month olds will stand on the rug and try to push the cart and have no idea why it doesn’t move forward. They get frustrated and will try strange tactics like trying to climb into the cart.

16 month olds understand that the rug plays a part in what’s blocking them from pushing the cart, but think it’s something to do with the mat, and not themselves.

18 month olds will typically try to push the cart once, and then quickly realize that they themselves are the obstacle to moving the cart. This suggests he’s aware of himself and his body.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

In developmental psychology, the Rouge Test is used to test self-recognition in children. We discuss the origins and significance of this classic test which assesses a child’s ability to identify themselves in a mirror.

Developed by Gordon Gallup Jr in 1970, using rouge makeup, an experimenter discreetly puts a red dot on the child’s face. Then the child is placed in front of a mirror to see how they react. Babies between 6-12 months will typically see a “playmate” in the mirror that they try to interact with. But babies around 18 months old will look in the mirror and start poking the red dot on their face, indicating they recognize themselves in the mirror.

This is crucial for a child to develop their sense of self—an individual’s awareness and understanding of their own identity and that they are a thing that exists in the world that is separate and distinct from other things. A sense of self develops over time and can include many facets but one of the earliest aspects of it is being able to recognize yourself.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

The Barnum Effect is the tendency for people to accept vague and general personality descriptions as highly accurate and personally meaningful. “Barnum statements” are general characterizations that people believe to be true about themselves, even though these statements could apply to just about anyone. It’s commonly exploited in astrology / horoscopes, fortune telling, psychics, mediums, tarot card readers, palm readers, and other con artists.

Bertram Forer identified the effect in 1948 with a classic psychological study which gave people personality surveys followed by bogus personality feedback. Every participant received the exact same personality feedback which they rated to be highly accurate of them.

Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the Barnum Effect and how it can be exploited by scamsters.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

How do sports and income relate? Specifically, how do the sports you played in high school relate with your household income. Which sports do more educated parents have their kids play? We surveyed 500 US high school graduates about what sports they played in high school, their parents’ household income, and their parents’ highest education achieved.

Key Findings:

• The rich kids played hockey. Hockey and income had the strongest correlation, meaning the wealthier your family was, the more likely you were to play hockey. This makes sense given the amount of equipment and facilities needed to play.
• Soccer was played by everybody. Soccer and income had the weakest correlation, meaning that income didn’t matter in whether or not you played soccer. This also makes sense given the minimal equipment needed to play.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Scale errors refer to a hilarious phenomenon in developmental psychology where young children make errors in judging the relationship between the size of an object and the size of their own body. What this looks like is a child seriously trying to sit in a doll house chair, trying to get inside of like a hot wheels car, and trying to put doll shoes on their own feet.

Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss how scale errors were discovered and what is going on in a child’s mind when they commit these errors.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Joseph Tajaran (Designer & Chris’s friend) and Chris Cole (Psych PhD) go over how aesthetics impact functionality in design. More specifically, they go over the aesthetic-usability effect and specific examples of how this happens in design:

1. Contour Bias: people are biased towards curved over sharp forms
2. Ockham’s Razor: the philosophy of leveraging the smallest amount of elements
3. Signal-to-Noise Ratio: maximizing the most functional elements of a design.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Why do men prefer black coffee? We ran a survey of over 500 people to see how their food preferences and gender interact. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran review the results in this episode of Psych Papers. The food takes we surveyed are:

1. How do you like your coffee?
2. Pancakes vs waffles?
3. For buffalo wings: blue cheese vs ranch?
4. For buffalo wings: boneless vs bone-in?
5. Favorite type of french fry?
6. What level of doneness for your steak?
7. Corn vs flour tortilla?
8. For ice cream: waffle cone, sugar cone, or cake cone?

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Is being a Joe Rogan fan a red flag in dating? Do Democrats or Republicans like Joe Rogan more? Why do Joe Rogan haters dislike him so much?

We conducted a quantitative survey of 1000 people and analyzed how people think about Joe Rogan. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the results in this episode of Psych Papers.

Here are some highlights:

1. Most people, that have heard of him, like Joe Rogan at least a little.
2. More women dislike Joe Rogan, and more men like Joe Rogan
3. Republicans like Joe Rogan. Democrats are mixed. But out of Joe Rogan’s haters, they’re predominantly Democrat.
4. Fans like him for being funny, controversial, and honest. Haters dislike him for being arrogant, conservative, and into conspiracies.
5. When it comes to dating a Joe Rogan fan, women feel more strongly both negatively and positively.
6. Democrats are more likely to prescribe a social responsibility to Joe Rogan to be mindful of the impact his content has on his audience.

 Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.